While a surplus of characters means that it’s not quite as good (or focused) as 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this new instalment is still a tonne of fun, weaving the original cast into the new cast’s story, and bringing some interesting new ideas to the series.

Premise: The Spenglers – Callie (Carrie Coon), Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), along with Callie’s boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) – have taken over the “family business” of busting ghosts from the iconic New York firehouse, which Winston (Ernie Hudson) bought. But when a man (Kumail Nanjiani) visits Ray’s (Dan Aykroyd) occult bookshop to sell some of his grandmother’s old knick-knacks, an ancient artifact is discovered that could unleash an unspeakable evil on the world.

Review:

I’m a lifelong fan of the original Ghostbusters (and its 1989 sequel), and I loved 2021’s legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife – so it’s fair to say that I was probably predisposed to enjoy Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. And make no mistake, I did enjoy it – but I think it’s fair to say that it’s not quite as good as its immediate predecessor, or the 1980’s films. (That said, it is still for me far superior to the 2016 “reimagining”, because it still nails the tone of the series, feeling like a genuine continuation of the mythology rather than an offshoot from it).

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first – and the big one is, the film simply has too many characters to give them all enough to do. The extended Spengler family is back, with Paul Rudd’s Gary Grooberson and Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe taking centre stage again, but it does feel like Carrie Coon’s Callie gets less to do this time around, and Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor again feels like the “Winston” of the new group with the least amount to do. But Frozen Empire also brings back Logan Kim’s Podcast (who was a relatively central character last time) and Celeste O'Connor’s Lucky (who admittedly had very little to do in Afterlife), but struggles to find anything of real substance for either of them to do.

“…there simply isn’t enough time or enough plot to give all the main characters something meaningful to do…”

Meanwhile, Frozen Empire also introduces a handful of new characters – including James Acaster’s eccentric scientist Lars, Kumail Nanjiani as a slacker who inherits a cursed object, and Patton Oswalt as an additional exposition deliverer – while at the same time working in cameos from the original cast of Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Bill Murray, and even William Atherton. Of course it’s a joy to see these beloved characters again (and Dan Aykroyd in particular gets a much larger role this time around), but with around a dozen main characters, there simply isn’t enough time or enough plot to give them all something meaningful to do.

The other weak area in Frozen Empire for me was a subplot involving Emily Alyn Lind as a ghost with unfinished business, mainly because I found both her character and her plotline underwritten and predictable, but hopefully not all viewers will feel that way.

“…pays homage to the previous films, while also attempting to expand the mythology…”

But – moving on from those couple of negatives, Frozen Empire has a tonne of stuff that is fun and exciting, and which not only pays homage to the previous films, but which also attempts to expand the mythology in the same way that the 80’s cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters did. Not all of it entirely works (the big bad of the movie has an impressive build up that the denouement arguably doesn’t live up to), but there are some great ideas in there (which I don’t want to spoil here), and despite me complaining that the film has an overstuffed cast, it was great to see the film find a way to get Ray involved in the mystical investigations, and Winston involved in expanding the Ghostbusters organisation.

It's also easy to see why the working title for the film was “Firehouse”, as not only have the Spenglers moved back into the iconic Ghostbusters firehouse to run the family business, but the firehouse itself feels very much like a character in the movie, with one plot thread linking back to the original 1984 movie. Yes, you could cynically argue that a lot of the nods in Frozen Empire are “fan service”, but there’s nothing wrong with that when it’s done properly – after all, even Ghostbusters II brought back Slimer for no real reason other than it’s popularity.

“…Paul Rudd once again gets some of the best comedic moments on the film…”

And while their individual screentime may be a little limited, both Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard do a lot with what they’re given – Carrie Coon continuing to deliver some great sardonic lines as Callie, and Finn Wolfhard playing up Trevor’s keen earnestness again as the 18-year-old repeated informs anyone who’ll listen that he’s an adult now. Mckenna Grace gets to add a few more layers to Phoebe as the character enters her “resentful teenager” years, and although one could argue that her character makes some surprisingly unwise decisions in this movie, these not only go to highlight the fact that Phoebe is “book-smart not street-smart”, but they also are consistent with her character’s impulsiveness as established in Afterlife (for example, when she threatens the sheriff with the proton pack).

Paul Rudd once again gets some of the best comedic moments on the film, and even if the plot thread that sees him struggling to make the transition from the kids’ teacher/friend to their stepdad can feel a little cliched at times, Paul Rudd’s performance keeps it very entertaining. In fact, one of the best sequences in the film is the opening one (after the prelude) which sees the Spenglers busting ghosts in Ecto 1 through the streets of NYC, and which is one of the few sequences where we get to see the new team working together as a unit before the storyline splits them up with different plot threads.

“…give fans all of the nods to the legacy of the series that they could ask for…”

So while the film is flawed, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun, and I have no doubt that fans of the previous films will find a lot to enjoy in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The movie doesn’t just rely on nostalgia, but it does give fans all of the nods to the legacy of the series that they could ask for. I personally still think there’s plenty of life left in this premise and in the four main new characters (and I thought the amount of screentime given to the original Ghostbusters in this film was just about perfect) – but if there are any further instalments in the series, perhaps the writers need to be a bit more ruthless in terms of cutting out the extraneous characters so that the remaining ones have a bit more to do.